permaculture

[Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com>]

The movement is already happening, in cooperatives in Venezuala, in farmer's 
seed burning of Monsanto GMO in Haiti, in small farmer and local food 
movements all over the world, in local currencies, intentional communities, 
indigenous uprisings to protect ecosystems, etc, etc. It is even happening in 
some of the most entrenched institutions such as a few public schools.  

An effective way to keep the word permaculture meaning what it actually means 
is to control the definitions of it. So we need to watch Wiki sites, get our 
definitions into dictionaries and encyclopedias, etc.  And to stay alert to 
media misdefinitions of it as well and correct them where possible. Having it 
trademarked helps too. I've always believed that is a strategy for keeping a 
subject from being co-opted by hostile vested interests.  And of course 
having manuals and textbooks such as Mollison's and Holmgren's work. It's 
starting to move into the university world as well, with Mollison's textbook 
as the bedrock of it. 

I think that the concerns about one small unit of national guardsmen 
co-opting permaculture are pretty unreal. There are so many tools that we 
have that can counteract that. It's created some interesting conversation so 
I'm glad it came up. I believe that the best way to stay in control of a 
subject is to be proactive, not to go off in our corners and refuse to 
associate with people. Universities ae going to start teaching this subject 
sooner or later. Let's make sure they get it right. It's inevitable that 
permaculture will move into the mainstream whether we help it or not. Let's 
be proactive and guide and inform that process as much as possible.

It is certainly possible to manipulate and undermine a movement, but when 
communities are ready for a certain level of truth, almost nothing can stop 
that momentum. The Civil Rights movement is a great example of that. 

Eloquent, passionate leadership is an important component of the success of 
movements. We would do well to support our vocal and eloquent spokespeople. 

Cory

 


--- On Thu, 8/12/10, Daniel Mazen Kablaoui <dankablaoui@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Daniel Mazen Kablaoui <dankablaoui@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Designing a Movement (was: Ethics of whatever)
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010, 3:11 PM
> Word to rafter sass.
> We gotta keep it moving.
> Show and prove.
> 
> You can't stop people; the best put the danks down.
> 
> I was thinking of how uncomfortable the lack of design in
> the system itself. But. (but) but the stretch of Pc goes all
> the way past that idea design. zone 5 Scott Pittman
> committment witness to reserve, and maybe Permaculture
> itself should and will indeed always have its zone 5.
> 
> Who wants to step up to the garden rigt outside the kitchen
> (what's the kitchen?); who will hold down zone 1. Because -
> as for allergies - it sounds like (to Me) there are people
> who don't have them. They are being listened to!
> 
> But maybe it's not an allergy as much as hereditary
> condition (hereditary allergy?)... We will see, we are all
> different.
> 
> Seems like some of em permies don't have it; and zone 1 is
> what's happening for them.
> 
> Who can make the idea clear; bring the style eminent? There
> are those who stick to the ground, working for themselves -
> what zone is that in this community?
> 
> For we are apparently arranged in a space already - discern
> yourself if you can in this context...
> 
> Here they are, talking. The relationships exist anyway, and
> insight is possible.
> 
> Cool discussion (glad I checked in guys)
> 
> 
> 
> On Aug 12, 2010, at 2:08 PM, gavinraders@gmail.com
> wrote:
> 
> > Beautiful. Thank you Rafter. Great to see this
> conversation come around full circle, but even more so, to
> hear the next generation of leaders in this movement coming
> into their own, finding their eloquent powerful voices, and
> raising the critical questions that need to be raised if we
> are ever going to move permaculture beyond what it has been.
> Here's to succession, evolution, and dialectical engagement
> within our movement.
> > Thats all I have time for now. But i take your words
> with me in the day-to-day work and struggle. Hope to
> reconnect soon Rafter!
> > 
> > Gavin Raders
> > Co-Founder, Planting Justice
> > www.plantingjustice.org
> > Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone, powered by CREDO
> Mobile.
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: rafter sass <rafter@liberationecology.org>
> > Sender: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
> > Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:55:39
> > To: Northeastern Permaculture 
> > (List)<northeasternpermaculture@lists.riseup.net>;
> <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Subject: [permaculture] Designing a Movement (was:
> Ethics of whatever)
> > 
> > 
> > Many heartfelt thanks  to the folks who have been
> able to engage with the challenges of this conversation
> without descending into
> > name-calling and other juvenilia.
> > 
> > ...
> > 
> > 
> > Kevin Skvorak has Problems.
> > 
> > Two of them, for the purposes of this conversation.
> ;)
> > 
> > One of them is a Personal Problem - he seems to have
> contracted the modern anarchist's allergy to leadership. The
> symptoms include putting critique before curiosity.
> > I hope he works on this. I think he would be even more
> effective in raising critical topics and questions if he
> did.
> > 
> > The other is NOT a Personal Problem. It's another kind
> of problem altogether - a Movement Problem.
> > 
> > He wants to be a part of a movement that practices an
> engaged and ongoing dialogue about its own ethics and
> strategy - and the actually-existing Permaculture movement
> can't really be described this way. Not quite - not yet.
> > 
> > What's standing in the way?
> > Well, a lot of the movement leadership seems to have
> contracted the classic leader's malaise of allergy to
> critique.
> > Juvenile defensiveness, on the part of our teachers
> and public faces, is a problem that is going to do us real
> harm, as a movement - if it isn't mitigated.
> > Or maybe we all just need to get really good at
> gentle, soothing, critique, so that we don't insult or
> frighten them when we have hard questions to ask. ;)
> > (And yes - I definitely respond better to that, too!)
> > 
> > And if that weren't enough, a lot of folks in the
> movement - along with most everybody else in the world -
> don't have a great toolbox when it comes to thinking about
> design and strategy at different scales. What does it even
> mean to build a movement - or design one? We aren't well
> prepared to answer. And we, of all movements, might want to
> think hard about the question.
> > 
> > I don't claim to know the answer, but I DO know that
> it requires more and different tools than the ones we use to
> transform an individual, or regenerate a landscape,
> > or organize a project, etc. etc.
> > 
> > Individual, project, community, movement, world...
> > The principles I use to guide my behavior and my
> relationships are related, but distinct, from the ones that
> I bring to creating strategy for the projects I work on.
> > The criteria I use to design my projects are related,
> but distinct from the ones I use to understand and work with
> my community.
> > And the tools I use to engage and enliven my community
> are related, but distinct from the ones that I use to build
> and strategize my movement.
> > 
> > So for me, arguments that we should go anywhere and
> teach Pc to anyone, for anyone, because Pc  is
> automagically transformative, are wrongheaded.
> > A good PDC might actually be able to transform anyone
> that takes it - but that doesn't mean that teaching that
> class is good for the movement.
> > As Annie Pollock points out, greenwashing is real, and
> we are already dealing with the challenges of the
> Permaculture label being applied to all kinds of things we
> don't
> > want to be associated with.
> > 
> > We could go and teach a PDC at a whites-only
> Afrikaaner "ecovillage" like Orania, and maybe it would have
> a profound impact on the people who took it.
> > But (1) most of us would be, shall we say, reluctant?
> for Pc to be seen as a tool for building a racially pure
> Volkstaat, and (2) the Oranians already identify with
> Permaculture, so I guess an ecological holistic worldview
> WON'T necessarily guide someone out of an oppressive,
> ethnocentric social vison.
> > 
> > Teaching Pc for, and to, white nationalists, would be
> bad for the movement.
> > 
> > (For more evidence that fascism and ecology can
> survive in the same brain, look into Rudolph Steiner's
> theories on race. Or even more frightening, search
> Stormfront.org for entries on Permaculture. Note: the point
> here is to debunk oversimplified models of change, and
> magical thinking about Permaculture education - not to
> compare the National Guard project to white supremacy.)
> > 
> > And vice versa: what's bad for the individual or
> project can be good for the movement. The lynching of civil
> rights movement workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and
> Michael Schwerner, in 1964, was a horrific tragedy for them,
> their friends, and families - and a historic watershed for
> the civil rights movement.
> > 
> > The point of these case studies is to say: we may not
> know how to design a movement, but
> > it ain't entirely like designing a PDC.
> > 
> > We are called, by our commitments, ethics, and
> desires, to figure it out. With each other.
> > 
> > OK, I'm actually supposed to be packing and moving
> right now, so I'm going to cut this off.
> > What are we doing to do with this movement of ours?
> > 
> > 
> > all love, respect, and hard questions,
> > rafter
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > rafter sass
> > Liberation Ecology Project
> > liberationecology.org
> > 518-567-7407
> > skype: raughter
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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